Soroti Hospital maternity ward has 2 beds

 Pregnant women wait to be ushred in the labour ward. Photos by Francis Emorut

The officials from Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia and International Fistula Alliance have expressed concern over the congestion of maternity ward at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital saying new infrastructure should be put in place.

Martins Andrews and Julie Rosenberg during their visit to the facility were guided by the consultant surgeon Dr. Frederick Kirya and the principal nursing officer Tino Akello.

The officials had to pass through congested maternity ward where some patients were lying on the floor up to the labour ward.

Pregnant women who were in labour pain were waiting to be ushered into the labour ward which has only two beds.

Dr. Kirya informed the officials that the administration is grappling with limited facilities and yet the number of patients and pregnant women is overwhelming.

He said the hospital was built in 1945 and no expansion has been made since then apart from repairing ward which was done by WHO in 2003.

"We are limited by space and infrastructure. For every woman lying on the bed there is another one lying under the floor. It's our country we have to work there," Dr. Kirya said.

The Fistula ward had nine patients who couldn't be operated due to power outage.

To address the gaps of space and infrastructure Dr. Kirya appealed to the donors to consider setting up a maternal and child health hospital.

"Children and mothers are the most vulnerable in society," he said.

The visiting officials are in the country as an advanced team of development partners who are looking at a possibility of building a Fistula hospital in Soroti.

This follows the ongoing conversation with the board of The Association of Rehabilitation and Reorientation of Women for Development since 2012 to establish a Fistula centre of excellence.

Meanwhile, the Soroti LC5 chairperson George Micheal Egunyu assured the officials that there is political will to support the setting up of Fistula hospital.

"We can call His Excellency the President and he will listen to our words," Egunyu stated.

He was speaking during a dinner hosted for the advanced team of donors at Akello Anex.

"The hospital we have sung about it for so long and we feel the time is ripe," the Katakwi LC5 chairperson Walter Elakas Okiring said.

According to the founder of the association Alice Emasu Seruyange over 2,000 fistula patients have been rehabilitated and reoriented in the communities.

She explained that the need for the fistula hospital is due to the global move to scale up Hamlin Fistula model as it has the best equipment.